Moving Into New Studios

Robert Feder has the details about the move of Cumulus radio stations from 190 N. State (WLS AM/FM) and the Merchandise Mart (The Loop/WKQX) to the NBC Tower. It sounds like it's a two-step process for the stations at the Mart, first to 190 N. State, and then to the NBC Tower. As someone who has been part of one of these radio station moves to brand new studios, and the usage of temporary studios, all I can say is God Bless. It's gonna be icky for a while.

There's a funny story in "Records Truly Is My Middle Name" about our move into new studios. Here's the Reader's Digest version. After suffering through studios that were so terrible for several months that we had to reduce our interviews to zero, I booked Martin Short to christen our new studios (on the phone) during our first show there. Unfortunately, the phones didn't work. We could hear him, but we couldn't get his audio through the control board. At that time we had one incredibly overworked engineer working on five different stations trying to meet impossible deadlines--and when we tried to reach him for help he was nowhere to be found. So...we had Martin Short call John's cellphone, and John interviewed him on the air by holding the phone up to the microphone. It was hilarious and ingenious, and Martin Short kept saying things like..."You're owned by CBS right? Imagine what the stations that aren't owned by multi-billion corporations have to do. Smoke signals?" Martin Short has done hundreds (if not thousands) of interviews, but I bet he still remembers that one.

By the way, it took another two weeks to get the phones fixed. And we did a show that featured listener calls every day. That was a lot of fun completely changing our show just because the equipment didn't work. Enjoy the move, Cumulus.